//------------------------------// // Entry #5 // Story: The Susurrations of a Pale Star // by the7Saviors //------------------------------// Monday – 4:34am So, not only did I find Pinkie Pie, but I also finally got a response from Luna about what's happening in Canterlot. You'd think that would be good news, and normally, it would be. Unfortunately for me, life hasn't been quite that simple lately. It's been downright soul-crushing, in fact. I mean it when I say I'm on my last legs here, and I think everypony else might be too. I think the whole of Equestria might be on its last legs, if not the rest of the world. Why all the doom and gloom, you might ask? Well, allow me to give a few examples before I get into the details. For starters, the sun shouldn't be up yet, but it is. It hasn't gone down since yesterday. And this blistering heat? It's not normal. I'm not talking about how abnormally hot it is, either—although it is abnormally hot. No, this is strange in that the temperature is now so high that the heat should literally be killing us. All of us. We should all be boiling alive, sizzling like griffon-made steaks on a barbecue, and yet none of us are. A lot of the greenery is starting to wilt, but the ponies are not, and nothing is bursting into flame as far as I can see. Don't get me wrong, I can still feel it, and I'm sure everypony else can too, but it's like the pain from such intense heat isn't allowed to go past a certain threshold. I have some spells to keep the area around me cool, but I've been using those all week to frighteningly little effect. Now they're not working at all, and I'm getting the full brunt of it. And the reason I know the heat isn't affecting everypony like it should be is because, one, I've checked the temperature and, two, all I have to do is walk into Ponyville. Remember that stallion in Town Square? The one that was just standing in the middle of the road staring up at the sun? That's pretty much all of Ponyville's adult population right now, and if what I heard from Luna is true, it's the same everywhere else. Just hundreds of ponies sitting outside, staring unblinkingly at the sun that still hasn't gone down yet. Nopony's moving. Nopony's saying anything. There are so many ponies out there on the streets, but it's as quiet as a graveyard. It's like they're all just waiting. Waiting for something to happen. Waiting for the end, maybewaitingforthehungrypyre I made the mistake of looking up at the sun while I was out there earlier. I don't even remember doing it, and I had to make a conscious effort to pull my eyes away from it. By the time I realized what I was doing and stopped, roughly an hour had passed me by. I was sitting out there with the rest of town, staring at the sun for an hour, and I hadn't even noticed. Somehow my eyes found their way up to that shining terror in the sky, and suddenly all my thoughts just slipped away for a while. I'm still not sure how I managed to tear myself out of that trance or whatever it was, but I made sure not to look at the sky again, and I've essentially locked myself and Spike away in the deepest part of my castle. I've been down here in the castle's crystal cellar ever since, using magic to monitor the world outside, writing all of this down, and going over the scrolls Luna sent me. And regarding Spike, he's still in his sleep coma thing. He isn't dead, but I don't think he'll be waking up any time soon, either. Still sleeping like all is right with the world. The only change is now his body heat has risen so much that I literally can't touch him for fear of burning my hooves. I took some time to check and, yes, it's the same with every other foal in Ponyville. And you want to know something else? Those strange simple robes Rarity was making? Every pony in town is wearing one. She actually got them all to wear those robes. Those stupid robes. Like some insane cult. I'd laugh at the absurdity of it all if I wasn't so horrified by the implications. Rarity offered me one, too. Didn't say a word, either. Just came right up to me in town, held out the garment, and when I didn't take it, she just turned away and kept offering robes to other ponies with this eerie hollow smile on her face. There wasn't a hint of life in her eyes. She was just going through the motions, just like Big Mac. Speaking of the Apple Family, I found them out on the farm. Well, I found Big Mac and Applejack. Like everypony else, they were standing outside, staring at the unrelenting sun, robes and all. Apple Bloom was still asleep in her room and Granny Smith was still nowhere to be found, but I'm pretty sure I know why. I had my suspicions before, but looking around Ponyville, I discovered that there wasn't a single elderly pony among the crowd. Didn't dwell on it too much, and I'm still not going to. Already enough of a wreck. Got more than enough to worry about. I found Rainbow Dash up in Cloudsdale, staring at the sun, just like every other pony. She didn't have a robe. None of the pegasi in Cloudsdale did, but that made sense, given Rarity couldn't reach the place on her own. Fluttershy is still gone. Pretty sure Discord whisked her away at some point and left the rest of us to suffer whatever horrifying fate awaits us. Don't know that for sure, but he still hasn't made an appearance or responded to mine or Luna's calls. I want to be mad at him. I'd like to rage and scream and curse his name to the heavens—and I know Fluttershy probably is, wherever he hid her—but I just can't muster the energy anymore. Honestly, I should probably be thanking the draconequus for thinking of Fluttershy at the very least. At least one of us can be spared from this burning nightmare. Wherever you are, Fluttershy, I hope you're safe. And then there's Pinkie. Do you want to know where I found Pinkie? I found her in the Cave of Harmony beneath the Old Castle in the Everfree, watching the Tree of Harmony burn to cinders. Isn't that insane? Crystal isn't supposed to burn normally, and the Tree of Harmony definitely shouldn't be susceptible to fire—at least I thought that was the case. Celestia once told me the Tree had its own kind of defense against direct attacks against it, but when I stumbled upon the scene, I found none of that. Well, no, maybe that's not entirely true. The only reason I found Pinkie in that cave was because something was calling out to me. Some silent voice within screaming for help. At least, that's what it felt like. I couldn't pinpoint exactly what the voice was, but I felt the pull of that voice coming from the Everfree Forest. The closer I got to the source, the more my worry and confusion turned into horrible foreboding. It didn't take me long, once I was actually in the forest, to realize where the voice was coming from. Sure enough, I got to the cave, entered its depths, and found Pinkie there. She just sat there in front of the Tree, watching it burn. Watching the crystalline branches crackle and pop and blacken and shrivel as if the thing were made of regular old bark. The actual Elements themselves—the ones we'd returned to the Tree of Harmony—were seemingly unaffected by the blaze, but that hardly mattered. It was like the Tree was crying out, silently screaming in agony, and there was nothing I could do. No spell I tried would quench the flames. Just like the heat outside, those flames weren't normal. They licked and lashed at the Tree like fiery tongues. They wrapped around its branches like slithering tentacles made of pure sunlight. It was wrong, vile, horrid, and utterly captivating. I couldn't look away. Even as I tried to stop it, somewhere in the back of my mind, I though how beautiful those flames are. I thought, why couldn't that be me? It still could be me. I could burn in those flames. Bath in them. Bask in them. I could let them consume me completely. More fuel for the hungry pyre. Feed it. Feed it. Feed it. Feed it. Feed it. Feed it. Feed it. Feed it. Feed it. Feed it. Feed it. Feed it. Feed it. Feed it. Feed it. Feed the pyre. Feed the pyre. Feed the pyre. Feed the pyre. Feed the pyre. Feed the pyre. Feed the pyre. FeedthepyreFeedthepyreFeedthepyreFeedthepyreFeedthepyreFeedthe I'm losing my mind. I'm literally losing my mind. I don't remember writing any of that. I don't remember unlocking the cellar door or climbing all the way up to the highest balcony in my castle. I have no memory of doing any of that. All I know is that, one moment I was writing about how I found Pinkie, and the next, I was sitting outside on my balcony staring at the sun. I checked the time, and I was out there for almost two hours. What's worse is that, now that I'm thinking about it and reading back what I wrote, I can't remember what happened after that—after I found Pinkie and tried to put out that fire, I mean. I'm fairly sure I knew before whatever weird impulse compelled me to go to the balcony, but now the memory is just gone. The last thing I can recall from back then, was arriving back at my castle and finding the scrolls from Luna in my bedroom. The rest is a blank. I don't know what happened to Pinkie or the Tree. I don't know what happened on the way back, and frankly, I really, really don't want to go back to check. If I'm being completely honest, I don't want to leave this cellar ever again. But I know I have to. I need to go to Canterlot. I have to tell Luna about the Tree of Harmony. Even if I don't know what happened, she might. At the very least, I might be able to get her to investigate instead, because I've decided I'm not going back to the Cave of Harmony. I can't. When I try to remember what happened in that cave, my body locks up and this wave of existential terror just washes over me. I don't know what happened to Pinkie and, I feel sick and disgusted with myself for saying it, but I don't want to know. I don't know if she caused that fire or if she was just there for it, but every fiber of my being is screaming at me to let it go. To leave it alone. That I'm better off not knowing the truth, and I find myself hard-pressed to disagree. So, I'm sorry, Pinkie, but I don't think I can help you. Not this time. I'll leave it to Luna. I also need to talk to Celestia. Luna thinks her sister is at the center of all of this, but not entirely the cause of it. She thinks Celestia is just as much a victim as everypony else. After reading Luna's letter and the scrolls she sent me, I'm not so sure. I have my doubts, but I don't think I'll truly know until I actually confront Celestia about it. I know I probably should have booked it to Canterlot the moment I read Luna's letter and the scrolls, but truth be told, I wanted to write this all down first, just in case something happened. I wanted something on record. I started this journal on a whim, but now it's become a sort of record of events, I suppose. Who knows? Maybe my decision to chronicle my thoughts just when this all kicked off was no mere coincidence. I don't know, but I should probably get some rest before I head out. I haven't slept since my last entry, and the fatigue and this heat is really starting to get to me. Maybe that's why all that craziness happened earlier. Maybe I just let my guard down because I was tired? Either way, I'm in no shape to make the journey all the way to Canterlot on my own. With things the way they are, I'll need to fly all the way there and probably make a few long-range jumps along the way. That'll be enough of a drain on my physical and magical resources, to say nothing of the terrible weather. I thought about jotting everything in the letter and scrolls down, but I'll leave it all bundled together instead. I've already memorized the instructions Luna gave me should the worst come to pass, but I'll take my journal and the notes with me just in case. I was going to update Luna on the situation when I got to Canterlot, but I'll just send her a quick letter and then, I'm going to bed. Hopefully, she can handle things with Celestia and the rest of Canterlot until I can get there. Hopefully, things won't get worse than they already are. Hopefully, we can fix this. Hopefully, Celestia hasn't gone completely insane. Hopefully, I haven't gone completely insane.